Take-Two has completed its $12.7 billion acquisition of mobile games giant Zynga, the company announced on Monday. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Zynga shareholders received $3.50 in cash and 0.0406 shares of Take-Two common stock per share of Zynga common stock. The deal, which was first announced in January, will bring Zynga’s popular games under Take-Two ownership, including Farmville and Words With Friends.
“We are thrilled to complete our combination with Zynga, which is a pivotal step to increase exponentially our Net Bookings from mobile, the fastest-growing segment in interactive entertainment, while also providing us with substantial cost synergies and revenue opportunities,” said Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick in a statement. “Each of our teams has a strong history of operational execution, and together, we expect that we will enhance our financial profile through greater scale and profitability, paving the way for us to deliver strong shareholder value.”
It was previously announced that Zelnick will lead the larger company with Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau. Zynga’s president of publishing, Bernard Kim, was supposed to work alongside Gibeau, but is leaving Zynga to become the CEO of Match Group at the end of this month.
“We are excited for Zynga’s next-generation mobile platform, free-to-play expertise, diverse offering of games and incredible team to join the Take-Two family,” said Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau. “We are eager to continue building an unparalleled portfolio of games that will reach broader markets and lead to continued growth for this next chapter of Zynga’s history.”
The acquisition brings together two gaming powerhouses, as Take-Two is known for console and PC games, while Zynga largely defined the mobile gaming genre. Although Take-Two already has a number of mobile games titles and has expanded its franchises into mobile, this will give the company a significantly larger holding in the space.
As for Zynga, combining with Take-Two, which also publishes Red Dead Redemption, Midnight Club, NBA 2K, BioShock and more, will give it a large library of franchises and IP from which to build new mobile gaming experiences. Similarly, Zynga’s IP may now find new traction in different formats and different screens.
The deal marks one of the several significant gaming acquisitions announced earlier this year. A week after the Take-Two and Zynga news dropped, Microsoft announced that it would acquire gaming giant Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion all-cash deal, inclusive of the company’s net cash. Less than two weeks later, Sony announced that it acquired Bungie, the studio responsible for the creation of Halo and Destiny, in a deal valued at $3.6 billion.
